DOMESDAY BOOK. or DOOMSDAY BOOK. A statistical account of the state of England in the latter part of the eleventh century. prepared by command of William the Conqueror in the year or years just preceding 1086. It of the oldest and most valuable of Eng lish records. The origin and signifi cance of the name is a matter of dispute. Thi. Anglo-Saxon Donuts were laws or dooms, and the term Dom-bor occurs in the laws of King „Ethel Stan and in the ecclesiastical laws of King Edgar. In a speeitie sense, the Anglo-Saxon Gospels use the word domesdav for 'judgment day: The in ference. therefore, is that, as applied to the fa mous record which became the embodiment of the King's will and the ultimate basis for the adjustment of all future land relations, the term contains the two ideas of supreme author ity and of final or doom. The book has been known by several other names. it is mentioned as the Motnius ll'intonic, or the "1Vin cliester Roll"; seripiara. 7•hesauri I:•yis, or "The Writings of the King's Treasury"; Libcr de Win tonia, or the "Book of Winchester"; and Liber or "The King's Book." The hook itself bears in its colophon or seal the simple title Desrrildio.
_\n cont emporary has told the story of the Domesday Book in simple and vig orous lam_mage. and a translation of plain and faithful narrative will best describe the way in which the work was first set 011 foot: "Ill the year 11N5 at midwinter. the King (Wil liam the f'oliquieror) was at (:Imicester with his Groat Council, and there held his court tire days; and afterwards the nrelthishop and clergy had a of three days, There were :Maurice eliosen idshop for London, and William for Nor folk, and Robert for Cheshire. They were all the Kings clerks. After this the King had a great consultation and very deep speech with his i i1 about this 1111141 how. it was peopled, or by What Hi•n, lie then sent his men all over En• land, 11110 every shire. and caused them to aseer lain how many hundred hides of land it con tained, and 'what the King had in it, what castles there Were in the several counties, and how much revenue he ought to get yearly from each. lie also caused them to write down how much land 1,4 longed to his a•elthishops, his bish ops, his abbots, and his earls, ?141—flint 1 may be brief -what property every land possessed in land or in cattle, mid how money this was worth. So very straitly did he
cause the survey to be made that there was not a single hide nor a yardland of ground. no•—it is sit:1111(4111 to say what he thought no shame to do—was there an ox or a cro• or a pig passed by that Was not it down in the accounts, and then all these writings were brought to him." The survey was made by the King's commission ( rs, lint they seem to have had the aid of the chief men of every shire. sxVorn jury, composed of the sherif ,. lords of manors. priests, heads of hun dreds, bailiffs, and six village tenants, made the inquest. There has been preserved for us the "Inquest of the County of •ambridge." an orig inal return of the survey of that county. From this the Domesday Book for Cambridgeshire was afterwards compiled by the royal secretaries. In making this transcription, many errors and omis sions were made. The same fact is noted when the Domesday Book is compared with the Exeter Domesday, an original return for the five south western counties of England. The enumeration of the cattle and swine, which the chronicler thought so shameful, is recorded in the original return for these counties, hut is omitted from the Domesday Book, 'nu. 011ii,,ion was doubtless intentional, because such data could have no per manent importance. The errors and omissions, however. indicate beyond that the persons who collected the original information were not the compilers and writers of the I/Anesday Book, The local jury made the inquest as to the name of the place, who held it in King Edward's time (104•-fiG), and who was the actual possessor. They ascertained the number of hides in the manor, and what portion was reserved in the lord's own hand. The villeins, cotters, and serfs, freemen and socmen were .1 census was made of the wood. meadow, and pasture, to gether with the number of mills and lish-ponds. (if all this there was to be a threefold return or valuation—as the land was hold in King Ed• ward's days. as it had been given by King Wil liam, and as it stood at the time the survey was made—and the jurors were to say further wheth er the assessment could now he raised. On the basis of the divisions of the country given in Domesday the taxes were levied.